to read prayers before
Congress the next morning. The motion was passed; and the next morning
Mr. Duche appeared, and after reading several prayers in the Established
form, then read the Collect for the 7th of September, which was the
thirty-fifth Psalm. This was the next morning after the startling news
had come of the cannonade of Boston;" and, says John Adams, "I never saw
a greater effect upon an audience: it seemed as if Heaven had ordained
that Psalm to be read on that morning."

"After this," he continues, "Mr. Duche, unexpectedly to everybody,
struck out into an extemporaneous prayer, which filled the bosom of
every man present. I never heard a better prayer, or one so well
pronounced. Dr. Cooper himself never prayed with such fervor, ardor,
earnestness, and pathos, and in language so eloquent and sublime, for
America, for the Congress, for the province of Massachusetts, and
especially for Boston. It had an excellent effect upon everybody here,"
and many, he tells us, were melted to tears.

* * * * *

Original.

MY BABY.

Within a cradle, still and warm,
There lies a little gentle form,
Just look beneath the coverlid,
And see the tiny sleeper hid!

Then peep beneath the cap of lace,
Behold his rosy happy face;
The velvet cheek, so pure and white,
Didst ever see a fairer sight?

His dimpled arm across his breast,
His chubby limbs composed to rest,
The gentle curls of waving hair,
Falling upon the pillow there!

The drooping lashes shroud his eyes,
Blue as the tinge of summer skies,
His damask lips like tints of rose
Which garden buds at twilight close.

Art thou a form of human mould,
Or stray-lamb of the heavenly fold?
A little herald to the earth,
Or cherub sent to bless our hearth?

Must evil spirits intertwine
And lead astray that heart of thine?
And must thou be with sin defiled,
That seemest now an angel child?

Oh blessed Lamb of God! to thee
I come, and with my baby flee
Within thy fold, and sheltering care,
I lay my child, and leave him there.

EUCLID, _Ohio_.

* * * * *

Original.

THE MOTHER'S PORTRAIT.

Night was coming on. The tall elms which beautify the little village of
G---- were waving to and fro their pendent branches, heavy with the
evening damp, and as the boughs swayed against the window panes of one
of th